Gabi On The Go: Saturday, Feb. 18 - Tulum, swimming in cave and snorkeling

TULUM

Another great day for an adventure!

We picked a day tour with four different attractions. For about CAN $200 an adult, the tour was amazing, super organized, safe, included food and tons of great memories. Totally worthy it.

First stop was the historical park of Tulum, just 45 minutes driving south of Playa Del carmen, where we are staying.

Mandatory family selfie with the Caribbean Sea behind us.

FROM WIKIPEDIA: Tulum is the site of a pre-Columbian Mayan walled city which served as a major port for Coba, in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. The ruins are situated on 12-meter-tall (39 ft) cliffs along the east coast of the Yucatán Peninsula on the Caribbean Sea. Tulum was one of the last cities built and inhabited by the Maya and achieved its greatest prominence between the 13th and 15th centuries. Maya continued to occupy Tulum for about 70 years after the Spanish began occupying Mexico, but the city was abandoned by the end of the 16th century. Tulum is one of the best-preserved coastal Maya sites, and today a popular site for tourists.

Cute lizards are everywhere, and cute explorers too. :)

Mark was our English speaking tour guide.

A nice 22 year old Dutch boy who is also looking for adventure himself.

Some believe these Iguanas are the reincarnation of the noble people who ruled this community thousands of years ago. They normally hang out close to the main palace, where the rulers used to be.

FROM WIKIPEDIA: The site might have been called Zama, meaning City of Dawn, because it faces the sunrise. Tulum stands on a bluff facing east toward the Caribbean Sea. Tulúm is also the Yucatán Mayan word for fence, wall or trench. The walls surrounding the site allowed the Tulum fort to be defended against invasions. Tulum had access to both land and sea trade routes, making it an important trade hub, especially for obsidian. From numerous depictions in murals and other works around the site, Tulum appears to have been an important site for the worship of the Diving or Descending god.

FROM WIKIPEDIA: Tulum has architecture typical of Maya sites on the east coast of the Yucatán Peninsula. This architecture is recognized by a step running around the base of the building which sits on a low substructure. Doorways of this type are usually narrow with columns used as support if the building is big enough. As the walls flare out there are usually two sets of molding near the top. The room usually contains one or two small windows with an altar at the back wall, roofed by either a beam-and-rubble ceiling or being vaulted. This type of architecture resembles what can be found in the nearby Chichen Itza, just on a much smaller scale.

Cooling down by the water.

It was over 30 degrees celsius and there wasn't too much shade.

It's believed that people back then used to find cool comfort in the jungle near by.

The young girl and the sea.

FROM WIKIPEDIA: Tulum was first mentioned by Juan Díaz, a member of Juan de Grijalva's Spanish expedition of 1518, the first Europeans to spot Tulum. The first detailed description of the ruins was published by John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood in 1843 in the book Incidents of Travel in Yucatan. As they arrived from the sea, Stephens and Catherwood first saw a tall building that impressed them greatly, most likely the great Castillo of the site. They made accurate maps of the site's walls, and Catherwood made sketches of the Castillo and several other buildings. Stephens and Catherwood also reported an early classic stele at the site, with an inscribed date of AD 564 (now in the British Museum's collection). This has been interpreted as meaning that the stele was likely built elsewhere and brought to Tulum to be reused.

FROM WIKIPEDIA: EL CASTILLO - Also in the central precinct is the pyramid, which is 7.5 m (25 ft) tall. The Castillo was built on a previous building that was colonnaded and had a beam and mortar roof. The lintels in the upper rooms have serpent motifs carved into them. The construction of the Castillo appears to have taken place in stages. A small shrine appears to have been used as a beacon for incoming canoes. This shrine marks a break in the barrier reef that is opposite the site. Here there is a cove and landing beach in a break in the sea cliffs that would have been perfect for trading canoes coming in. This characteristic of the site may be one of the reasons the Maya founded the city of Tulum exactly here, as Tulum later became a prominent trading port during the late Postclassic.

The detail worshiping the God of the Sun.

FROM WIKIPEDIA: TEMPLE OF THE FRESCOES - Among the more spectacular buildings here is the Temple of the Frescoes that included a lower gallery and a smaller second story gallery. The Temple of the Frescoes was used as an observatory for tracking the movements of the sun. Niched figurines of the Maya "diving god" or Venus deity decorate the facade of the temple. This "diving god" is also depicted in the Temple of the Diving God in the central precinct of the site. Above the entrance in the western wall a stucco figure of the "diving god" is still preserved, giving the temple its name. A mural can still be seen on the eastern wall that resembles that of a style that originated in highland Mexico, called the Mixteca-Puebla style, though visitors are no longer permitted to enter.

Mayan people were not too tall.

The doors were so short.

There is a nice large Mayan market outside of the ancient city, with local art and souvenirs.

It was a change to get up close to one of the popular host. It was love at first sight.

Check out its tale!

FROM WIKIPEDIA: Ctenosaura pectinata is a species of moderately large lizard in the family Iguanidae. The species is native to western Mexico. The standardized English name is the western spiny-tailed iguana. However, an earlier edition of standardized names applied the name Mexican spinytailed iguana to Ctenosaura pectinata.

CENOTE EL SUEÑO

The next stop was in one of the thousands of Cenotes in this region.

Basically it's a hole in the ground that takes you to a cave filled with fresh water.

We visited the Cenote El Sueño.

FROM WIKIPEDIA: A cenote is a natural pit, or sinkhole, resulting from the collapse of limestone bedrock that exposes groundwater. The regional term is specifically associated with the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico, where cenotes were commonly used for water supplies by the ancient Maya, and occasionally for sacrificial offerings. The term derives from a word used by the lowland Yucatec Maya—tsʼonot—to refer to any location with accessible groundwater.

It is one of an estimated 10,000 cenotes, water-filled sinkholes naturally formed by the collapse of limestone, located across the Yucatán Peninsula, in Mexico, some of them are at risk from the construction of the new tourist Maya Train.

The water is very refreshing and life jackets are mandatory, because the depth varies constantly.

Look up! These are stalactites, all over the ceilings.

FROM WIKIPEDIA: A stalactite is a mineral formation that hangs from the ceiling of caves, hot springs, or man-made structures such as bridges and mines. Any material that is soluble and that can be deposited as a colloid, or is in suspension, or is capable of being melted, may form a stalactite. Stalactites may be composed of lava, minerals, mud, peat, pitch, sand, sinter, and amberat (crystallized urine of pack rats). A stalactite is not necessarily a speleothem, though speleothems are the most common form of stalactite because of the abundance of limestone caves.

It's an incredible experience to swim around!

This cave has three cenotes - open wholes connecting to the surface.

Bats.

FROM WIKIPEDIA: LIMESTONE STALACTITES

The most common stalactites are speleothems, which occur in limestone caves. They form through deposition of calcium carbonate and other minerals, which is precipitated from mineralized water solutions. Limestone is the chief form of calcium carbonate rock which is dissolved by water that contains carbon dioxide, forming a calcium bicarbonate solution in caverns.

This are the roots of a tree.

I don't have the picture of the tree from the surface, but it's magical to think how clever the nature is to spread theses roots far, searching for water.

By identifying the trees on the surface, the Mayans knew where to look for fresh water.

Columns - when stalactites meet stalagmite... a thousands of years process.

FROM WIKIPEDIA: A stalagmite is a type of rock formation that rises from the floor of a cave due to the accumulation of material deposited on the floor from ceiling drippings. Stalagmites are typically composed of calcium carbonate, but may consist of lava, mud, peat, pitch, sand, sinter, and amberat (crystallized urine of pack rats).

The corresponding formation hanging down from the ceiling of a cave is a stalactite. Mnemonics have been developed for which word refers to which type of formation; one is that stalactite has a C for "ceiling", and stalagmite has a G for "ground", another is that, as with ants in the pants, the mites go up and the tights (tites) come down.

Some parts are very dark and narrow.

FROM WIKIPEDIA: Stalagmites should normally not be touched, since the rock buildup is formed by minerals precipitating out of the water solution onto the existing surface; skin oils can alter the surface tension where the mineral water clings or flows, thus affecting the growth of the formation.

AKUMAL - YAL KU LAGOON

Our third destination was this beautiful lagoon that connects with the ocean and is a nursery for various species of fish.

The drive to the beach is fun, on a dirt road, through the jungle.

Family selfie - snorkeling version.

FROM WIKIPEDIA: Akumal is a small beach-front tourist resort community in Mexico, located 100 km (62 mi) south of Cancún, between the towns of Playa del Carmen and Tulum. It is located on Akumal Bay and Half Moon Bay on the site of a former coconut plantation in Tulum Municipality in the state of Quintana Roo, and is part of the Riviera Maya area. The 2010 census showed a population of 1,310 inhabitants.

Akumal is famous as a destination for snorkeling, where visitors can swim with endangered green sea turtles, who visit the shallow bay to feed on sea grass.